Tech & Society Week

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MONDAY – March 23 
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1:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Governance of Companion Robots
Details: Meet the robots! Join a special panel of scholars from Georgetown University and Kyoto University to discuss their project on Governance of Companion Robots, AI-driven physical devices that directly engage human emotions, cognition and behavior. The panel will explain governance flashpoints around companion robots, explore regulatory responses, and share results of research on AI and robots using brain measurements (fMRI) and surveys. PIs are Anupam Chander and Laura DeNardis and researchers from Kyoto University. Grant provided by the Tech & Public Policy program in the McCourt School of Public Policy. 
Hosts: Center for Digital Ethics, Institute for Technology Law & Policy 
Location: Fisher Colloquium, Hariri Building (Hilltop Campus)
Registration: RSVP This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

4:30 PM – 6:30 PM | Tech & Society Week Opening Reception
Details: Georgetown University kicks off our annual Tech & Society Week with an Opening Reception that brings together the innovative ideas and leaders shaping the future of technology and public life. Discover the dynamic work unfolding across campus at the intersection of technology, policy, ethics, and innovation throughout the week. Meet the students, faculty, center and department leaders driving this work forward — and connect with collaborators and partners from across sectors who are building what’s next.
Host: Tech & Society
Location: Hilltop Campus
Registration: This event is invite-only.

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TUESDAY – March 24
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10:00 AM – 11:30 AM | Grand Rounds:  A Showcase for Student Research and Projects from Across the Georgetown Tech & Society Curriculum
Details: Bringing together students and faculty for a dynamic, fast-paced showcase of ideas and research, this year’s Grand Rounds event will feature a series of short (6-minute) student “elevator pitch” presentations drawn from schools and departments on both the Hilltop and Capitol Campuses. The goal is to spotlight the breadth of Georgetown’s tech-and-society curriculum, celebrate student work, highlight innovative pedagogy, and surface connections across disciplines by placing diverse methodologies and topics in conversation with one another. 
Host: Institute for Technology Law & Policy 
Location: Gewirz 12 – Capitol Campus
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to Georgetown community members.

10:00AM – 12:30 PM | Maternal Health by Design: Reimagining Systems to Better Support Families
Details: Maternal health outcomes in the U.S. remain unacceptably poor. While there is no shortage of commitment or innovation, many of the biggest barriers are structural: fragmented systems, limited data visibility, inconsistent funding, and services that are difficult for families to navigate. This convening will bring together a select group of maternal health leaders and subject matter experts to co-create bold transformative ideas that can impact the lives of women, children, and families, now. 
Host: Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation
Location:  Capitol Campus
Registration: This event is invite-only.

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM | HOYA AI – Georgetown Alums Discuss the Future of Artificial Intelligence 
Details: Prominent Georgetown alums join Professor DeNardis in the Cybersecurity & Society class. A great networking opportunity for students and an opportunity to explore the economic and societal implications of emerging AI technologies.  
Host: Communication, Culture & Technology Program,  Center for Digital Ethics, Tech, Ethics, and Society Program (TES)  
Location: Reiss 112 Lecture Hall – Hilltop Campus
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

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WEDNESDAY – MARCH 25
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10:00 AM – 11:30 AM | Does Practice with AI Make Perfect? A Conversation with Firm Lawyers Using AI in Client Representation
Details: As part of the Georgetown AI and the Legal Profession (GAILP) Initiative housed within the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy, Georgetown Law Professor Daniel Wilf-Townsend will moderate an engaging panel featuring four practicing attorneys who will share how they incorporate artificial intelligence into their daily legal work. The discussion will offer practical insights into how AI tools are transforming research, drafting, case strategy, and client services across different practice areas. Attendees can expect a candid conversation about the opportunities, ethical considerations, and real-world challenges of integrating AI into modern legal practice.
Host: Institute for Technology Law & Policy 
Location: Hotung Dining Room – Capitol Campus
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM | Gnovicon
Details: Join us for the Spring 2026 Gnovicon, celebrating gnovis Georgetown University’s only peer-reviewed, student-run academic journal dedicated to graduate research on technology and society, housed within the Department of Communication, Culture & Technology. The conference will bring together students, faculty, and professionals to critically examine the role of interdisciplinary research in today’s evolving tech landscape, featuring student paper presentations, a faculty panel, a poster session, and an avatar exhibit. Attendance is free and lunch will be provided.
Host: Communication, Culture & Technology Program
Location: McShain Lounge, McCarthy Hall- Hilltop Campus
Registration: Gnovicon Registration  This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM | The New Bio Frontier: Creating an Ecosystem for a Healthy and Secure Future
Details: From CRISPR innovations fueling medical advances to biomanufacturing critical materials to AI-enabled tools unlocking new discoveries at the forefront of health science, biotechnology sits at the center for the next generation of U.S. innovation. Building robust innovation hubs and supporting the field’s foundational infrastructure will fuel U.S. global competitiveness and security. 

Join us on March 25 for a fireside chat with IQT’s Vice President of Technology, Dr. Jessica Dymond, to discuss the current state of emerging biotechnology, the promises it holds, and the steps that policymakers, investors, and practitioners can take to build a robust biotechnology sector. 
Host: Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Location: 500 First 9th Floor (Capitol Campus)
Registration: RSVPThis event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM | Tech & Society Trivia Night
Details: Join us for a Tech & Society Trivia Night! Test your knowledge with questions covering tech & society topics as well as Georgetown’s own Tech & Society Initiative. Come with your team, join one when you arrive or compete as an individual. Prizes and giveaways for the winners.
Host: Tech & Society
Location: McShain Lounge, McCarthy Hall- Hilltop Campus
Registration: RSVP This event is open to Georgetown community members.

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM | Making AI Work for the People
Details: This two-part panel discussion explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and democracy from American and global perspectives. The first session features speakers, including U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, discussing U.S. regulatory approaches to AI that protect American democratic institutions while the second brings together international stakeholders—including UN representatives and civil society organizations—to examine AI’s impact on democracy worldwide. The event aims to bridge policy, technology, and governance communities in addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing democratic societies today. Light refreshments will be provided between panels.
Hosts: Georgetown University’s Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Citizenship (AIDC) and Georgetown Democracy Initiative
Location: 125 E. St MCC Auditorium – Capitol Campus
Registration: RSVP This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

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THURSDAY – March 26
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9:00am – 11:30am | Web Scraping and the Future of the Open Web in the AI Age
Details: This morning session of panels and short talks will address the future of online publishing and open access to data in the face of increasing automated data collection by and for AI services.  Co-hosted by the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy, and Georgetown Law’s Intellectual Property Information Policy Clinic, with support from the Wikimedia Foundation.
Hosts: Institute for Technology Law & Policy, Intellectual Property and Information Policy Clinic, Center for Democracy & Technology 
Location: Gewirz 12 – Capitol Campus
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

10:00 AM  – 11:30 AM | Designing for Democracy: Social Media Feeds in a Hyper-Polarized World
Details: Organized by the Knight-Georgetown Institute (KGI) for Georgetown’s Tech & Society Week, this panel will examine the relationship between algorithmic design and social and political polarization. As politics has become more partisan, hostile, and at times antidemocratic, observers often point to social media algorithms, particularly those designed to maximize user engagement, as a radicalizing force that pushes people toward more extreme content. At the same time, researchers are working to better understand the complicated relationship between social media use and growing social divisions. This panel brings together two leading scholars of social media and polarization, Tiziano Piccardi (Johns Hopkins University) and Nejla Asimovic (Georgetown University), to explore how algorithms and social context interact in a hyper-polarized world.
Host: Knight-Georgetown Institute
Location: 500 1st Street NW, 9th floor – Capitol Campus
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

12:00 PM – 1:45 PM | Roundtable Discussion: AI and Democracy
Details: This roundtable will gather the Georgetown University community to reflect on the intersections between artificial intelligence (AI) and democracy. It builds and expands on the two-panel event “Making AI Work for the People,” taking place March 25 on Georgetown University’s Capitol Campus. Following brief opening remarks from a small panel, roundtable attendees will engage in an open discussion, exploring key themes, unanswered questions, and implications for research, policy, and pedagogy relating to AI and democracy. The session offers an opportunity to deepen the previous evening’s conversation in a smaller, more intimate setting and to consider how Georgetown, given its unique position in the nation’s capital, can advance scholarship and practice at the intersection of AI and democratic governance. Lunch will be served.

Hosts:  Georgetown Democracy Initiative and Georgetown University’s Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Citizenship (AIDC)

Location: Social Room, Healey Family Student Center – Hilltop Campus

Registration: RSVP— This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM | Book Event – Degrees of Freedom: On Robotics and Social Justice
Details: A special book event with author Tom Williams discussing his new work Degrees of Freedom: On Robotics and Social Justice. Hosted by the Center for Digital Ethics and the Department of Communications, Culture, and Technology and moderated by Prof. Laura DeNardis, Director of the Center for Digital Ethics. .
Host: Center for Digital Ethics, Communication, Culture & Technology Program
Location: Car Barn 311 – Hilltop Campus
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM | “Digital Detention” film screening
Details: The Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law hosts a screening of the documentary “Digital Detention.” The film unveils a booming industry in the surveillance of immigrants, where GPS monitors and facial recognition apps turn migrants and asylum-seekers into data for profit. The film exposes the personal and societal impacts of this new form of control using invasive technologies, highlighting the stories of asylum-seekers living under constant surveillance in Austin, Texas, a city transformed by the tech boom. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Carolina Sanchez-Boe (director and professor at Brown, Paris) and Denise Gilman (visiting professor at Georgetown Law/UT Austin), moderated by Marianna Poyares (The Privacy Center).
Host: Center on Privacy & Technology
Location: 125 E Street, NW, 9th floor – Capitol Campus
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Our Environment: What AI Means for the Planet
Details: Join GREEN (Georgetown Renewable Energy and Environmental Network) for a fireside chat on AI and its role in the environment! We’ll be joined by professors from the Computer Science department, the Earth Commons, and experts in tech policy and ethics. Together, we’ll discuss AI’s potential uses and consequences for the ways we study, protect, and live in our environment. 
Host: GREEN, Massive Data Institute, Department of Computer Science
Location: Bulldog Alley, Leavey Center – Hilltop Campus
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM | Tech Policy Happy Hour
Details: Tech Policy Happy Hour (TPHH) is a monthly gathering of folks working at the intersection of technology, law, and policy. We’re advocates, policymakers, academics, journalists, and everything in between. 
Host: Tech & Society
Location: Dirty Habit Restaurant and Bar: 555 8th St NW, Washington, DC 20004
Registration: No registration is required.This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM | The Problem of AI: Curriculum and Inquiry in the College of Arts & Sciences
Details: The College of Arts & Sciences will host ‘The Problem of AI’, a conversation on how CAS is approaching the questions AI raises and how to develop curriculum to prepare students to engage these issues thoughtfully and deliberately. Dean David Edelstein will moderate the panel discussion and an open Q&A. Panelists include Professors Laura DeNardis, Mark Fisher, Nathan Hensley, and Lisa Singh. 
Host:  Department of Computer Science, Massive Data Institute, College of Arts & Sciences 
Location: Copley Lounge – Hilltop Campus
Registration: Registration is encouraged, but not required. This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

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FRIDAY – March 27
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9:00 AM – 4:00 PM | Fritz Family Fellows Conference: Interdisciplinary research at Georgetown University
Event Details: The Fritz Family Fellows Program is a cross-campus collaboration that aims to cultivate the next generation of leaders. The fellowship program leverages expertise in the social impacts of technology, and builds a network of public interest researchers and technologists who learn from and support each other’s work. The annual Fritz Family Fellowship Conference is a celebratory event during which fellows will have the opportunity to present their research to the Georgetown community, as well as reflect on the interdisciplinary aspect of their research experiences.
Host: Tech & Society
Location: 500 1st Street NW, 9th floor – Capitol Campus
Registration: RSVP This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM | AI, Technology, and Children
Details: This event will explore the impacts that AI and technology have on children’s development, care and protection.  The session will highlight the most specific and current threats, identify promising interventions designed to address harmful impact and/or better understand the developmental impacts, and serve as an open invitation for collaboration and integration of children’s issues for other researchers or interventions.  
Host: The Collaborative for Global Children’s Issues  
Location: HFSC Hermon Room – Hilltop Campus
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Georgetown Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 
Details: Join the Georgetown community to help close this gender gap on Wikipedia by increasing the representation of underrepresented groups — in both Wikipedia content and contributors — on topics such as women in politics, women in STEM, and women in the arts.
Host: Massive Data Institute,Institute for Technology Law & Policy,Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation
Location: Office of Student Equity and Inclusion, Garden Level of Healey Family Student Center (Please note this location is wheelchair accessible) (Hilltop Campus)
Registration: Event Webpage — This event is open to the Georgetown community and the general public.

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM Student Movie Night: Love in the Time of Algorithms
Details: What happens when love meets artificial intelligence? Join us for an evening screening of Her—a thought-provoking film about connection, consciousness, and companionship in a digital age. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in healthcare, relationships, and everyday life, this film invites us to ask: Can machines love? Can we? And what does it mean for intimacy, autonomy, and personhood when technology begins to feel human? We’ll provide pizza and sodas—you bring your curiosity. After the film, stay for a relaxed, student-centered discussion exploring themes of AI, emotion, identity, and the future of human relationships.
Host: Tech, Ethics, and Society Program (TES),  Ethics of Health and AI Initiative
Location:  HFSC Film Room 
Registration: This event is open to Georgetown students.

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SUNDAY – March 29
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9:00 AM – 8:00 PM | MDI & Bright Data Datathon
Details: Join the McCourt School of Public Policy’s Massive Data Institute (MDI), Bright Data Initiative by Bright Data, and IBM, for an exclusive one-day Datathon for Democracy on March 29th. We will begin with foundational training and guide participants through applied investigation and analysis, working in teams to analyze real-time data from platforms such as X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Reddit. Undergraduate and graduate students are welcome to participate. 
Host: Massive Data Institute
Location: 125 E St NW – Capitol Campus
Registration: RSVP  — This event is open to Georgetown community-members.

Monday (March 17)
10:30 AM – 3:00 PM | Gnovicon 25
Event Details: 2025 marks 25 years since the launch of gnovis, Georgetown University’s only peer-reviewed, student-run academic journal dedicated to graduate research on technology and society, housed within the Communication, Culture & Technology program. The editorial board is excited to celebrate this milestone at our Spring 2025 conference, which will bring together students, faculty, and professionals to reflect and discuss the role of interdisciplinary research in the midst of today’s tech revolution. The conference will feature student panel sessions, an interdisciplinary faculty panel, and a special poster session. Attendance is free and lunch will be provided.
Host: gnovis at the Communication, Culture & Technology Program
Location: Social Room, Healey Family Student Center* (Hilltop Campus)
Registration: RSVP —This event is open to the general public.

3:00 PM – 4:30 PM | AI Hazards: Understanding AI Incidents
Event Details: A tension exists — AI tools can be used to improve lives, but AI tools can also be used to cause harm. How might we improve AI safety to reduce the number of harms taking place? Join a conversation with a panel of experts in technology, policy, and law to discuss different harms that have occurred and offer directions for improving AI safety for all. Panelists will dive into a discussion on AI incidents including definitions, work being done to capture and analyze harms, discuss what gaps exist, and impacts on our daily life. Following the panel there will be reception with the panelists.
Host: Massive Data Institute, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Center for Digital Ethics
Location: Fisher Colloquium* (Hilltop Campus)
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the general public.

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM | Welcome Reception
Event Details: Join us for a celebration kicking off our fourth annual Tech & Society Week—a week-long series of events across the Georgetown campus, exploring issues at the nexus of technology + society.
Host: Tech & Society
Registration: This event is invite-only.

Tuesday (March 18)
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM | The Rise of Consumer Protection Claims Against Digital Platforms
Event Details: Recent years have seen a growing wave of consumer protection litigation focused on harms alleged to arise from the design of social media platforms. While platforms have historically enjoyed broad Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and First Amendment protections, legal decisions have become increasingly nuanced. This discussion will take stock of how courts across the US are grappling with pressing and novel questions related to platform liability and design. Bringing together leading experts – including litigators, advocates, and academics – the panel will highlight current cases and discuss how the social media litigation landscape may evolve in the years ahead.
Host: Knight-Georgetown Institute, Institute for Technology Law & Policy
Location: Classroom 750, 500 1st St NW* (Capitol Campus)
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the general public.

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM |Generative AI & Safety-Critical Systems: Connecting Research to Policy
Event Details: Join us for a conversation with professor and international expert and leader in the field of autonomous systems Missy Cummings, PhD.
Host: Center for Digital Ethics, Department of Computer Science
Location: Multipurpose Room, Arrupe Hall* (Hilltop Campus)
Registration: No RSVP required — This event is open to the general public.

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM | Copyright v. AI in the European Union
Event Details: Join the Tech Institute for a lecture on artificial intelligence and copyright in the European Union by Matthias Leistner, Professor Civil Law and Intellectual Property Law with Information and IT-Law at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. The first EU-wide judgment on the copyright issues involved in training AI, the Regional Court of Hamburg’s judgment in the Laion case, provides some valuable initial guideposts on the interpretation of the EU’s copyright exception for text and data mining, but many questions – including the issue of territoriality – remain. In response, the EU has passed the AI Act, effectively requiring AI companies to comply with certain regulatory duties around transparency and the establishment of a policy to respect EU copyright law. The private enforceability of this new framework and its international effects raise further intricate questions in the global regulatory landscape. This presentation will try to disentangle these different instruments and their interaction,  propose some tentative answers and, finally, draw a larger policy perspective on the future of copyright regulation of AI training in the EU. This event is part of the Global TechNet Working Group’s AI Governance Series.
Host: Institute for Technology Law & Policy
Location: 125 E St NW* (Capitol Campus)
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the general public.

Wednesday (March 19)
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM | Reckoning with the Evolving Social Media Landscape
Event Details: The last five years have witnessed profound changes to the social media ecosystem, including the rise of upstart platforms like TikTok and Bluesky and the transformation of established ones like Twitter (now X). Leading experts Renée DiResta (Georgetown University), Sean Martin McDonald (Digital Public), Samantha Lai (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), and Prithvi Iyer (Tech Policy Press) will reckon with this evolving social media landscape, its consequences for our everyday lives, and what the future may hold.
Host: Knight-Georgetown Institute
Location: Leavey Program Room* (Hilltop Campus)
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the general public.

3:30 PM – 5:30 PM | Global Perspectives on AI and the Law
Event Details: The Tech Institute is hosting a series of rapid talks on the future of AI policy in different countries and regions, presented by lawyers and technologists pursuing graduate studies. This event will feature the research of our experts who have experience working in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Canada, and the United States. Drawing from their expertise, these presentations will cover new AI issues arising in data privacy, labor rights, healthcare, and international legal frameworks.
Host: Institute for Technology Law & Policy
Location: 125 E St NW* (Capitol Campus)
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the general public.

Thursday (March 20)
2:30 PM – 4:45 PM | Artificial Intelligence and Environmental Compliance and Enforcement
Event Details: AI offers opportunities to enhance environmental regulations enforcement, but also risks infringing upon individuals’ privacy in the process. The Tech Institute will host two panel discussions with environmental law attorneys, policy experts, and professors about the possibilities of AI in environmental law. The first panel will discuss the benefits of AI, such as the ability to ensure regulatory compliance by tracking illegal deforestation and pollution. The second panel will look at the possible risks, such as the ability to use this AI technology to intrusively monitor individuals and businesses.
Host: Institute for Technology Law & Policy
Location: Gewirz 12* (Capitol Campus)
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the general public.

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM | AI Arms Race? Semiconductors, Strategy, and Security
Event Details: Join us for a panel discussion exploring the intersection of semiconductor manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and industrial policy in the context of global competition. As the U.S. navigates an increasingly complex geopolitical and economic landscape, semiconductor strategy and AI development have become pivotal to national security, economic resilience, and technological leadership. This discussion will examine critical policy challenges, including the feasibility of U.S. semiconductor manufacturing autonomy, the strategic risks of dependence on Taiwanese chip production and the implications of China’s rapid advancements in AI, particularly with the emergence of DeepSeek.
Host: Georgetown National Defense Policy Initiative (NDPI), Georgetown Tech Policy Initiative (GTPI), McCourt Economic Policy Hub (MEPH)
Location: Room 440, 125 E St NW* (Capitol Campus)
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to members of the Georgetown community.
Friday (March 21)
9:30 AM – 4:00 PM | Fritz Family Fellows Conference
Event Details: The Fritz Family Fellows Program is a cross-campus collaboration that aims to cultivate the next generation of leaders with expertise in the social impacts of technology, and build a network of public interest technologists who learn from and support each other’s work. The annual Fritz Family Fellowship Conference is a celebratory event during which fellows will have the opportunity to present their research to their communities, as well as reflect on their research experiences.
Host: Tech & Society
Location: Capitol View Convening Space, 9th Floor, 125 E St NW* (Capitol Campus)
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the general public.

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Georgetown Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
Event Details: Join the Georgetown community to help close this gender gap on Wikipedia by increasing the representation of underrepresented groups — in both Wikipedia content and contributors — on topics such as women in politics, women in STEM, and women in the arts.
Host: Massive Data Institute, Institute for Technology Law & Policy, Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation
Location: Office of Student Equity and Inclusion, Garden Level of Healey Family Student Center* (Hilltop Campus)
Registration: RSVP — This event is open to the general public.

Monday, April 8

11:00 AM – 1:00 PM | Tech & Society Fest

Event Details: A celebratory launch to Tech & Society Week, featuring all of the centers from across Tech & Society. The event will highlight amazing work happening at the nexus of technology & society across the University: from centers, to degree programs, to fellowships and student groups. Come and plug in (pun intended) to Georgetown’s vibrant Tech & Society ecosystem.

Host: Tech & Society Initiative

Location: Mid-Campus Terrace — between Leavey Center and Hariri Building (Main Campus)*

Registration: This event is open to all — no registration needed.

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | Tackling Corruption with AI, Lessons from Latin America with Dr. Gastón Pierri

Event Details: Join us for a talk with Dr. Pierri to explore the capabilities of these tools and the possible risks of their deployment. Dr. Gaston Pierr will present some results of the Peruvian and Brazilian cases regarding the use of AI to track corruption cases in these countries. He can connect the use of technology with governance. Corruption costs close to 4% of GDP to countries around the globe. Gaston Perri’s team at IDB is working with academia and the Latin American public sector to develop machine learning and AI tools to detect and better prosecute corruption cases. In Peru, they are building a system that helps determining causality in corruption cases and determining which ones of the possible cases brought by the citizens to the prosecutors are worth pursuing.

Location: Student Lounge (Room 104) at Old North (Main Campus)*

Host: Georgetown Technology Policy Initiative and Latin America and the Caribbean Policy Association

Registration: RSVP

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Meet the Tech, Ethics & Society Faculty

Event Details: Come and learn more about Georgetown’s new interdisciplinary program, Technology, Ethics and Society. Already a TES student? Come to connect with the TES faculty, learn about what they’re working on, and hear more about the courses they’re teaching and developing.

Host: Tech, Ethics and Society

Location: Healey Family Student Center — Social Room (Main Campus)*

Registration: RSVP

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM | Book Talk with Cal Newport: Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

Event Details: As part of the “What Makes Us Human in the Age of AI” series co-organized by the Georgetown Humanities Initiative and the Center for Digital Ethics, a conversation with NYT best-selling author and Georgetown professor Cal Newport  about his work on a groundbreaking new philosophy for pursuing meaningful accomplishment while avoiding overload. Join us to learn how to reject “busyness” as usual and embrace a healthier understanding of productivity.

Host: Center for Digital Ethics

Location: Fisher Colloquium — Hariri Building (Main Campus)*

6:45 PM – 7:45 PM | Hot-topics in Tech & Competition Policy Discussion

Event Details: Join us to discuss the hottest topics in US Tech and Competition Policy with veteran tech policy practitioners of the Federal Trade Commission. Their experience and insight will drive a conversation about current issues in advance of the annual antitrust convention in Washington. This discussion will take place between Amanda Lewis, a former staffer and regulator and current tech policy expert, and Gustav Chiarello, a Tech & Public Policy Fellow.

Host: Georgetown Technology Policy Initiative

Location: Old North Building, Room 205 (Main Campus)*

Registration: RSVP

Tuesday, April 9

10:30 AM – 12:30 PM | Gnovis Journal Colloquium: Volume 24

Event Details: Join Gnovis Journal authors for a session to gain a deeper understanding of their academic papers, which explore the intersections of media, technology, race, and power. Then, participate in a Q&A session with the authors, CCT faculty, and other attendees.

Location: Healey Family Student Center — Social Room (Main Campus)*

Host: Gnovis @ Communication, Culture & Technology

Registration: RSVP

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM | Book Talk: High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs its Economy by Angela Huyue Zhang

Event Details: In this book talk, Professor Zhang will take us beyond the headlines to unravel the dynamic complexity of China’s regulatory governance. She argues that the crux of the matter lies not in why China needs to regulate but in how it goes about doing so. Drawing insights from her newly released book, “High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy,” she will introduce the dynamic pyramid model of regulation, an analytical framework that demystifies Chinese regulatory governance. Additionally, she will examine the impact of the tech crackdown on the administrative state, the competitive landscape, and global tech rivalry. 

Location: McDonough Faculty Lounge — 5th Floor (Law Center)*

Host: Institute for Technology Law & Policy, Georgetown Center for Asian Law, and Georgetown China Law Society

Registration: RSVP

1:30 PM – 3:30 PM | CCT Carnival of AI

Event Details: Step right up, step right up to behold the marvels of CCT graduate students as they unveil the mysteries of AI, de-blackbox the wonders of large language models, and reveal the astonishing world of deepfakes, all in a space filled with creative possibilities from AI wallpaper and artifacts to AI buttons and fortune tellers.

Location: Car Barn 315, CCT Studio, and CCT Lounge (Main Campus)*

Host: Communication, Culture & Technology

Registration: This event is open house — no registration needed.

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM | AI & Me: Creativity & Content

Event Details: AI & Me: Creativity & Content is the third and final installment in new series “AI & Me” hosted by the Massive Data Institute and the Tech & Public Policy program. Panel discussion from 3:00-4:00 PM, followed by a reception with the panelists.

Location: Copley Formal Lounge (Main Campus)*

Host: Massive Data Institute and the Tech & Public Policy Program

Registration: RSVP (This event is open to the public.)

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM | Decade of Impact: The Beeck Center at 10

Event Details: For the past 10 years, the Beeck Center has been at the forefront of driving societal change through data, design, technology, and policy. Join us in April as we reflect and celebrate with us! Meet and hear inspiring stories from alumni whose careers were shaped by the Beeck Center in various sectors—public service, philanthropy, media, academia, non-profit, and private industry.

Location: Main Campus

Host: Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation

Registration: This event is invite only.

Wednesday, April 10

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM | New Tech, Old Story: How Understanding the History of Worker Surveillance Should Inform Policies and Regulation

Event Details: How has workplace surveillance played out in U.S. history? How do we see these historical patterns repeated today? What do these echoes mean for both workers and employers in the context of emerging technologies? The “New Tech, Old Story: How Understanding the History of Worker Surveillance Should Inform Policies and Regulation” panel grounds current anti-surveillance at work debates in the context of history. It will also offer some examples of how workers are organizing against surveillance tools being deployed on them, and some ideas for more effective and historically-informed policy interventions.

Location: 9th Floor Conference Room at 500 First St NW (Capitol Campus)*

Host: Center on Privacy and Technology

Registration: RSVP

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Global Perspectives on AI Governance

Event Details: UNESCO, the OECD, President Biden’s Executive Order, and the EU AI Act all emphasize the importance of diverse perspectives when analyzing AI’s unique and novel challenges. This event will highlight the international perspectives of experts in our Tech LLM program, who will bring their experience working in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean to bear and provide insights on the critical issue of how regulatory approaches to AI will differ across countries and regions.

Location: 9th Floor Conference Room at 500 First St NW (Capitol Campus)*

Host: Institute for Technology Law & Policy

Registration: RSVP

4:00 PM – 6:30 PM | Bracing for Impact: AI in the Wild (Distinguished Lecture by danah boyd)

Event Details: From the moment ChatGPT launched publicly, the hype-making and fear-mongering about Generative AI began. Would AI finally bring about a leisure-filled world with robots doing our bidding? Or would AI destroy humanity? These were but two of the poles of the conversation as public commentators wrestled with how AI might reconfigure work, creativity, politics, and social life. In turn, questions of ethics, equity, responsibility, and accountability quickly followed suit. For well over a year now, countless communities are rushing head-first into recentering their work around AI and its potential implications. Some are pursuing a new goldrush; others simply want to be relevant. In this talk, danah will explore different facets of this cacophonous circus with an eye towards grounding the hype and fear back in the earth. She will examine how earlier phases of AI transformed different work-related practices, discuss how the process and practice of doing ethics during a hype cycle requires abstracting away from the moment, and push the audience to resist deterministic thinking as everyone grapples with an AI-infused world. This event will be followed by a reception.

Location: Fisher Colloquium — Hariri Building (Main Campus)*

Host: Center for Digital Ethics

Thursday, April 11

9:30 AM — 10:30 AM | Previewing the Government AI Hire, Use, Buy (HUB) Roundtable Series

Event Details: The Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation (Beeck Center) and Institute for Technology Law and Policy (Tech Institute) are partnering to lead a series of roundtables examining the government’s use of artificial intelligence (AI). The roundtables will examine the government’s role in hiring AI talent, acquiring AI tools, and putting those tools to use. Representatives from each center will provide an overview of initial roundtable planning and invite audience input on the important questions to consider and voices to include as they carry out the series later this year. 

Location: 6th Floor Lounge at 500 First St NW (Capitol Campus)*

Host: Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, Institute for Technology Law & Policy

Registration: RSVP

11:00 AM — 12:30 PM | Burning Questions: Online Deception and Generative AI

Event Details: The rise of generative AI raises urgent questions about the integrity of information online, the potential for deceptive content, and the very foundation of public trust in digital spaces. This panel discussion will bring together federal agency experts grappling with the varying implications of AI-generated content for online deception. It will explore what research, data, and evidence are most salient to current policy debates, highlighting existing concerns while also anticipating broader societal and ethical questions that loom over the horizon.

Location: 9th Floor Conference Room at 500 First St NW (Capitol Campus)*

Host: Knight–Georgetown Institute

Registration: RSVP (This event is open to the public.)

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | Putting the AI in “Paid”: How Lawyers Can Use and Advise on AI

Event Details: Current and former students from the Intellectual Property & Information Policy (iPIP) Clinic will lead an interactive panel discussion describing their clinic projects using or advising on artificial intelligence (AI), like face surveillance, ChatGPT, and other forms of generative AI. Law students will leave the workshop equipped to have informed conversations with supervisors, colleagues, and clients about sociotechnical and ethical (colloquially and legally) issues raised by AI systems.

Location: Room 750 at 500 First St NW (Capitol Campus)*

Host: Intellectual Property and Information Policy Clinic

Registration: RSVP by April 5, 2024

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM | “Into the Woods with Generative AI: Drawing Pathways to Creative Pedagogy” (Creative Workshop with Ethics Lab)

Event Details: This creative exploratory workshop by Ethics Lab is an invitation to students and faculty across Georgetown to map their perspectives, expertise, and experiences in order to consider: What pathways does Generative AI pave for the future of higher-education?

Location: Ethics Lab – Healy Hall, 201b (Main Campus)*

Host: Ethics Lab

Registration: RSVP

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM | GUWeCode Coding Party

Event Details: Georgetown University Women Coders is hosting their annual Coding Party. Join us to participate in coding challenges, compete in an amazing race, win prizes, and meet new faces. There will be coding challenges for newbies, intermediate coders, and advanced coders. Dinner and snacks will be provided. All you need is a computer and an excitement to learn and code!

Location: Leavey Program Room (Main Campus)*

Host: Georgetown University Women Coders and the Department of Computer Science

Friday, April 12

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM | Fritz Family Fellows Conference

Event Details: The Fritz Family Fellows Program is a cross-campus collaboration that aims to cultivate the next generation of leaders with expertise in the social impacts of technology, and build a network of public interest technologists who learn from and support each other’s work. The annual Fritz Family Fellowship Conference is a celebratory event during which fellows will have the opportunity to present their research to their communities, as well as reflect on their research experiences.

Location: 9th Floor Conference Room at 500 First St NW (Capitol Campus)*

Host: Fritz Family Fellowship Program

Registration: RSVP by March 29, 2024

11:00 AM – 1:30 PM | AI Ethics Showcase

Event Details: Global Cyber Policy student teams will give presentations demonstrating their AI-generated image, video, or text, explaining how they made it, analyzing the political implications, such as to national security or democracy, and explaining relevant policy recommendations that address these implications. The presentations will be open to those attending Tech & Society Week.

Location: Room 750 at 500 First St NW (Capitol Campus)*

Host: Communication, Culture & Technology

Monday, March 27

10am – 3:30pm // Privacy Enhancing Technologies for the Public Interest

This workshop is the second installment of an ongoing series connecting policy makers and technologists to encourage the development of thoughtful, impactful privacy enhancing technologies. The workshop will feature presentations and interactive, small group brainstorming sessions.

Location: 500 1st Street

Learn more and register here

1:20 – 3:20pm // Interplanetary Internet Governance

Professor Laura DeNardis will speak about “Interplanetary Internet Governance” at the Tech Law and Policy Colloquium. 

*email techandsociety.georgetown.edu@georgetown.edu for details

3:00 – 4:30pm // An Introduction to Feminist Cyberlaw

Join Georgetown professors Meg Jones and Amanda Levendowski for an introduction to the new field of Feminist Cyberlaw. Through discussion with authors from our forthcoming edited volume, we will explore how gender, race, sexuality, disability, and class shape cyberspace and the laws that govern it.

Location: Zoom

Register here

Co-Sponsored by the Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Technology Law and Policy, and the Law & Technology Forum of the Women’s Bar Association of D.C.

Tuesday, March 28

11am – 12:30 pm // Behind the Mic: Tech Podcast Hosts Reflect on the Impact of Technology

If digital technology has taught us anything in the last several decades, it is that alongside the potential for good comes the potential for great harm. As people everywhere try to understand the implications of current and emerging technology, it is increasingly clear that there are few (if any) clear-cut answers, and that the issues we are exploring are often in the rough and blurry edges between disciplines. Podcasts have proven to be a compelling medium for exploring these rough edges with impressive line-ups of guests and scholars. But what about the people who host and create the space for these conversations? Let’s flip the script, and create a space to hear more from them. What do they see in the constellation of conversations they are having: patterns, gaps, questions that need further exploration?

Join us for a conversation with three brilliant minds that create conversations exploring and untangling complex issues: Bridget Todd (Host of There Are No Girls on the Internet and Founder of Unbossed Creative), Justin Hendrix (CEO and Editor/Host of Tech Policy Press), and Quinta Jurecic (Host of Lawfare, Arbiters of Truth).

Location: Lohrfink Auditorium

Register here

1:30 – 3:30 pm // Politics and Polling: Practices, Perceptions and Public Confidence

The last two presidential elections have led to scrutiny and debate over how political polling is conducted and how it is used (and misused) by campaigns, parties, political pundits, and the public at large. Join GU Politics and MDI for a discussion with polling experts about the challenges polling faces today and what to expect in 2024. The panel discussion will be followed by a reception.

Location: Copley Lounge (Hilltop)

RSVP here

The event will include speakers with a depth of experience in the field:

[moderator] Chris Stirewalt Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute (AEI); Contributing Editor and Weekly Columnist, The Dispatch; Political Editor, NewsNation; former Political Editor, Fox News; GU Spring 2023 Politics Fellow

Jennifer Agiesta CNN Director of Polling and Election Analytics

Fred Yang Chief Executive Officer, Hart Research Associates

Whit Ayres Founder and President of North Star Opinion Research

Jonathan M. Ladd, Ph.D. Associate Professor in the McCourt of Public Policy and Department of Government, Georgetown University; Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

This event is hosted in partnership with the Institute of Politics and Public Service and the Massive Data Institute both at the McCourt School of Public Policy.

4:00 – 5:00pm // Data for Impact: Leverage the Environmental Impact Data Collaborative for your Research

Georgetown Community Launch Event of the EIDC: Do you want to research environmental, economic and social issues in the United States? Join the Environmental Impact Data Collaborative team to learn about our platform that hosts quality-checked datasets on environmental policy and related topics, such as health or vulnerable communities. Drop-in for snacks and great conversation! This event is open to the GU Community — students, faculty and staff.

Location: Old North, 104 / Student Lounge

Register here

5:30 – 7:30pm // Fail Fest

Fail Fests draw on the philosophy of “failing forward” to allow speakers and attendees to find comfort in making mistakes and exploring opportunities for continued learning and growth. During this event, students will hear fun and funny failure stories from 4–5 professionals working at the intersections of technology and society, followed by an opportunity for students to mingle and reflect. Light appetizers and refreshments will be served.

Location: Hariri Pavilion (Outside the MSB Building)

Register here  *Recommended, Not Required

Wednesday, March 29

10am – Noon // Behind the Scenes: Understanding Equity and Representation in Government Data

If data is not collected, shared, or used with equity in mind, it can worsen structural inequities in important policy-making and delivery of public services. How might we understand the role of governments and individuals to address equity as we consider data collection, usage and accessibility? Join the panel of experts to discuss how we responsibly use data for data-driven decision making. The panel discussion will be followed by “Coffee Conversations” with the panelists.

Location: Copley Lounge (Hilltop)

RSVP here

The event will include speakers with a depth of experience in the field:

[moderator] Lynn Overmann is the incoming Executive Director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation. She currently serves as the Senior Advisor to Ambassador Susan Rice, Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and Senior Advisor to Mina Hsiang.

Meeta Anand, J.D., Senior Program Director for Census & Data Equity at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund

Rita Ko, Chief Data Officer & Director, Racial Equity Analytics Lab at Urban Institute

Milda Aksamitauskas, Fellow of the State Chief Data Officers Network at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and Former Chief Data Officer at the Department of Justice of the State of Wisconsin

This event is hosted in partnership with the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and the Massive Data Institute at the McCourt School of Public Policy.

11am – Noon // Conversations in Tech & Society Research with GNOVIS

Join the GNOVIS journal team to discuss current student research on tech and society topics ranging from misinformation to representation in media. We’ll be workshopping theoretical concepts and ideas from previous published GNOVIS articles. Space is limited, register early!

1:00 – 2:15pm // Intersectional Bias in Applications of Artificial Intelligence

Join us to explore the potential for intersectional bias in applications of artificial intelligence drawing on case studies from migration and border control, military and medical contexts. Our aim is to ask how overlapping markers of identity, including age, gender and race can produce bias and the ways existing approaches to AI often do not take into account these intersections. Using cases from different fields, we also point to the limits of datasets for AI developed in one context and deployed in another, as well as the challenges of testing and evaluation.

Location: Zoom

RSVP here

The event will include speakers with a depth of experience in the field:

Carla Koppell, Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the interim Vice Dean of the SFS for Diversity Equity and Inclusion, GU

Katharine Donato, Donald G. Herzberg Professor of International Migration and the Faculty Chair of the SFS, GU

Heather Frase, Senior Fellow for AI Testing and Standards, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, GU

Katherine Chandler, Assistant Professor and Field Chair, Culture and Politics, SFS, GU

Co-Sponsored by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, the Institute for the Study of International Migration, and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office in the School of Foreign Service.

1:30 – 3:30pm // CCT Project Exhibit

Come walk through CCT and check out projects created in CCT classes that focus on the nexus of technology and society.

Location: CCT Lounge, Car Barn 311

3:30 – 4:45pm // Tech and the Good Life

Wasn’t tech supposed to help us live better? Can we still make it do that? Join us for a conversation about how we can (and must) pursue a meaningful life in a world full of distractions, especially all those shiny rectangles with buttons. This panel will discuss how to be present with peers and practice healthy-ish relationships with tech in our homes, on our wrists, and at our workplaces. But this panel will also walk the walk — by inviting audience members to reflect on their own sociotechnical dilemmas and exploring the collective nature of the current cognitive crisis. Join us for a conversation with Dr. Jeanine Turner, Dr. Erika Cohen-Derr, and Dr. Cal Newport.

Location: CCT Lounge, Car Barn 311

No RSVP needed

3:30 – 5:00pm // Cop Out: Automation in the Criminal Legal System

Algorithmic technologies increasingly pervade the criminal legal system. Police, judges, prosecutors, and other legal authorities are increasingly using technologies like predictive policing, face recognition, and risk assessments to inform or make critical decisions about policing and punishment, which has profound consequences for peoples’ rights and liberties. In a new interactive digital narrative, Cop Out: Automation in the Criminal Legal System, we explore these algorithmic technologies fueling the increasing automation of the criminal legal system. An accompanying essay considers the real-life, on-the-ground impacts of this change, and how algorithmic technologies can stymie attempts to reconsider how the criminal legal system operates by reinforcing historical and contemporary inequities.

Join the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law for the official launch of Cop Out: Automation in the Criminal Legal System, followed by a roundtable discussion.

Location: Hybrid – Zoom / 500 1st Street

Register (for in-person) here

The event will feature incredible speakers, focused on strategies of resistance:

Assia Boundaoui, journalist and filmmaker behind The Feeling of Being Watched and Inverse Surveillance Project

Nasser Eledroos, Managing Director of Northeastern Law’s Center on Law, Innovation, and Creativity

Meg Foster, Justice Fellow at the Center on Privacy & Technology

Puck Lo, Research Director at Community Justice Exchange

Freddy Martinez, Senior Researcher at Project on Government Oversight

Paromita Shah, co-founder and Executive Director of Just Futures Law.

Thursday, March 30

10:00 – 11:30am // A Roundtable with the Chief Technologists: Leveling Up the Government’s Technology Policy Expertise

To address the central role technology plays in our economy, work, communications, and social interactions, many government agencies–at the state and federal level–have named Chief Technologists or Chief Technology Officers to bring greater knowledge and skills into their work. On March 30, 2023, the Georgetown Institute for Technology Law and Policy is pleased to bring a group of these distinguished, trailblazing government officials together for a conversation about the strategies for keeping government nimble and responsive to the ever-changing landscape of technology.

Location: Location provided upon RSVP

Register here

The event will feature current and former CTOs at regulatory agencies, including:

Stephanie Nguyen, CTO of the Federal Trade Commission.

Erie Meyer, Chief Technologist of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and former Chief Technologist of the Federal Trade Commission.

Ashkan Soltani, the current Executive Director of the California Privacy Protection Agency, and former Chief Technologist of the Federal Trade Commission.

4:00 – 6:00pm // Diving into the CHIPS Act

A deep-dive on the CHIPS act. This is part of CSET’s monthly Tech and Security Webinar Series, and will be followed by a reception.

Location: Hybrid (in person + Zoom)

Register here

5:00 – 7:00pm // Tech Policy Happy Hour

Tech Policy Happy Hour is a long-standing monthly gathering of folks working at the intersection of technology, law, and policy. Join us for a special edition that coincides with Tech & Society Week!

Location: Dirty Habit

Friday, March 31

9:00am – 1:00pm // Fritz Family Fellowship Conference

The Fritz Family Fellows Program is a cross-campus collaboration that aims to cultivate the next generation of leaders with expertise in the social impacts of technology, and build a network of public interest technologists who learn from and support each other’s work. The annual Fritz Family Fellowship Conference is a celebratory event during which fellows will have the opportunity to present their research to their communities, as well as reflect on their research experiences.

500 1st Street

Register here

1:30 – 3:30pm // Tech for the Public Interest: How Tech Jobs Can Launch Careers in Civil Rights, Social Justice, and Public Service

Whether it’s advocating for public policies that hold tech companies more accountable, designing tech solutions to modernize delivery of government services, or imagining how tech can drive greater access to justice, there’s no question that tech can offer a clear path to working for social good. Join tech VIPs and Georgetown students, faculty, staff, and alumni to learn more about how to combine an interest in technology with the pursuit of serving the public interest.

500 1st Street

Register here

This program is presented by the Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Technology & Public Policy in partnership with the District of Columbia Mayor’s Innovation & Technology Inclusion Council.

3:30 – 4:30pm // Tech x Environment x Ethics

Join Ethics Lab fellows for a discussion about their work at the intersection of technology and environmental ethics.

Location: Ethics Lab (Healy Hall, room 201b)

Registration: No registration needed, just show up!

all day // Digital Ethics Workshop: New Frontiers in Digital Ethics

A workshop featuring talks on new research in digital ethics by rising early-career researchers with backgrounds in philosophy, business ethics, and computer science. The workshop will include in-depth discussion about each of the eight talks. *Registration details to come. 

This is a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University.

Saturday, April 1

all day // New Frontiers in Digital Ethics

A workshop featuring talks on new research in digital ethics by rising early-career researchers with backgrounds in philosophy, business ethics, and computer science. The workshop will include in-depth discussion about each of the eight talks.

Main campus, exact location TBA

Details to come

This is a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University.